Not Easy To Beat Cancer Without Courage Strength Belief
Deliverance From Cancer Diagnosis
Section 4
(The following is another section from “Asking And Getting What You Want … positive prayer secrets” booklet by Thomas L. Hall)
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This section may save your life. Or it may save the life of someone you love. So please read carefully and learn what God could do when there is a diagnosis of terminal illness.
This is a true story of God’s removal of the horror of pancreatic cancer diagnosis from my life. And how my experience can help you when any terminal diagnosis is laid upon you or someone you love.
Before I get to the story, please let me review with you God’s plan for us. Let me tell you how both you and I, and our ancestors, were robbed of God’s promised grace of health.
When God created the universe He created man to enjoy the Earth. He did not plant us in the soil as He did the trees but He made us mobile so we could roam the Earth and enjoy all his creation.
In order to maintain harmony among us. He put a part of himself in each of us so when we had a problem we could come to Him in prayer and He would give us anything we asked Him to give us. The only stipulation He made was that we should believe in Him.
His plan was a wonderful plan. But after a time, something went wrong. Men stumbled around without praying. Some sought power over others. Man fought for territory.
God was dismayed with the state of affairs. So He sent His son, Jesus, to live among us and to reaffirm God’s love. To remind us God would give anything we asked for in prayer. To remind us that we should share with one another and not covet all the world’s goods for our selfish purposes.
Jesus told us in the Book of John that the spirit lives within us. It does and It will speak to us when we pray – if we will listen.
The example Jesus gave the world was an inspiration in the time Jesus lived.
After the death of Jesus, the word Jesus preached spread like fire among the people. The early Christians were overjoyed with their new lives. Early Christians could pray directly to God and they did. God answered their prayers. The early Christians also learned they could communicate with the deceased through prayer. Because of these benefits, Christianity spread among the people.
Then the hammer fell and all the benefits were taken away. The early Christians were happy but some priests in the early Christian church were unhappy because the people were praying directly to God. The people were meeting in small groups and discussing God’s word.
The power of the priests was not great. Power was wanted by some priests. Those priests were not concerned with the salvation of the people but rather with power and wealth.
“This is a true story of God’s removal of the horror of pancreatic cancer diagnosis from my life.”
So some priests of the early church with the help of the politicians and their armies issued a series of edicts that made it a crime for people to pray directly to God. Worshipers could only pray rote prayers the church gave them to repeat. It was forbidden for small groups of Christians to meet for study and religious fellowship.
People were forbidden to read the Bible. The people were told only priests could read the Bible and would interpret the Bible for the worshipers. Violation of these rules resulted in death for the offenders.
As time went by people were actually cut off from God and forced to look only to the priests. The latter claimed they were the appointed and only they could deal with matters relating to God.
Fear of punishment gave the church control over the people. With this control, the church became rich and powerful. As a result, the church owned much of the land and controlled much of the wealth.
All of this started about the end of the fourth century after Christ’s death and continued for almost 800 years. This long period in history is known as the Dark Ages – or Middle Ages – the most miserable of all history and largely attributable to greed for power on the part of the early church.
A couple of centuries ago some men began to protest within the church. They actually broke away from the church and began to organize their own religious groups. Men like Martin Luther (16th century) and John Wesley (18th century). Founders of the Lutheran and Methodist churches for example.
The protest of these two men and others like them lead to the movement that is called Protestant Reformation. It is easy to see the connection between their protest and the word Protestant. When the Protestant movement took hold, people could read the Bible. People could pray as they wished.
As liberating as this Protestant movement was for worshipers, an unfortunate situation remained to shackle worshipers. And that was the new movements were patterned to some extent on the red tape outlines of the earlier, older, churches.
While people could pray and read the Bible, only the most devout did much of either. The worshipers and their offspring through habit looked to the new pastors for prayers and weekly interpretations of the Bible. There were some few exceptions as I said, but they were a minority.
Never did the Christian movement recover the enthusiasm felt by the earlier Christians of Christ’s historical time. Christianity lost its early vigor and never has regained the intense fervor of the early converts.
Is there another reason for Christianity becoming less vigorous? Yes, there is. And this reason directly concerns you.
Ask for anything in prayer and expect to get it
The early Christians were encouraged to develop a one to one relationship with God. Ask for anything in prayer and expect to get it. They prayed and their prayers were answered.
The Protestant churches have seldom if ever, stressed the individual, silent prayers that develop your one to one relationship to God. You probably have not been instructed how to pray and then wait for the small voice within you that is God to answer.
You have not been shown again and again how prayer is answered. How sharing actually returns to you far more than you give. How planting seeds give you such a bountiful harvest from God in answer to your prayers that you cry out to God to stop his blessing.
Have modern day pastors, priests and rabbis deliberately tricked you by not letting you know the benefit of your own one to one relationship with God so they could hold power over you? No, they have not. What happened is the early church structure and format followed to some extent into modern routines.
While we had more freedom, it was not a total break with an all new worship routine. Church buildings, altars, clerical dress, church music, dogma, language, clerical bureaucratic structure discipline, routine, and other points remain much the same as in the Dark Ages. The response of the Protestant congregations to the clerics did not change very much.
So the fact early Christian enthusiasm for a one to one relationship did not return is not the modern pastor’s fault. Not at all.
My personal feeling for pastors, priests and rabbis are one of deep respect, admiration, and love. They are men devoted to the salvation of your soul. They deserve your support. Your respect. And your love.
The fact remains if you are to enjoy good health as God intends for you to do if you are to have your prayers answered for anything you pray for as God promises, then you must regain the power of one to one relationship with God that the early Christians knew.
Proof that an important part of God’s business is your continuing good health is the following true story from my life that I am now going to tell you which could help you in a terminal emergency.
Terminal emergency
My yacht was anchored in El Nido, Palawan in the Philippines. I expected to stay for several weeks. On a Wednesday morning, I got up and had breakfast. I went to the toilet and was dumbfounded to see dark blood gushing from my body. A lot of it. So much blood the crew thought someone had dumped diesel oil on the water around our boat when the toilet was flushed.
After about thirty minutes this happened again. Then again two more times during the next hour and a half. This is a startling experience when you’ve never had any hints of ulcers or stomach trouble in your life. I’m almost always in perfect health.
To make things worse, El Nido had no telephone, no hospital, no doctors and no roads leading in or out of the town. The telegraph was broken. The ferry boat came only once a week. It was impossible to head my yacht towards Manila because typhoon Agnes was due to cross our path in three days.
All I had aboard to give me a clue to my condition was a thick medical book put out by the United States Coast Guard. I looked in the section describing what happened to me. The instructions were to go to bed, lie flat on your back, take your blood pressure every hour and summon medical help at once.
Since we could not head north to Manila, we set course for Puerto Princessa which was the largest town south of us. We should have made that port in 30 hours but a strong headwind caused us to be late. We got there in about in about 72 hours by motoring all the way. The only alternative would have been to get on our ship radio and call for a helicopter evacuation. I had blood pressure equipment aboard so I could keep a record of my dropping blood pressure.
Even if the doctor were not rushed, he had no x-ray equipment or laboratory in his hospital.
We arrived in Puerto Princessa. The first hospital was too dirty to imagine. The doctor told me he could not treat me anyway because he was rushing to a plane to get a six-year-old boy who had a gunshot wound in the neck to Manila. Even if the doctor were not rushed, he had no x-ray equipment or laboratory in his hospital.
He suggested I go to a small Seventh Day Adventist house which doubled as a clinic. But this was Saturday, the SDA Sabbath. I went to the SDA clinic anyway. An off-duty employee said the doctor was in church but he could go and get him.
When the doctor came back, I heard him tell one of my crew that he had a full schedule of other activities that day and he doubted if he could treat me. When I heard this, I walked out on the porch, introduced myself and explained things to him.
When I explained what had happened, I could see a compassionate look in his eyes. At that point, he told his wife, “Cancel my appointments for this afternoon. This man needs help. Call in nurses and technicians.”
The doctor told an assistant he did not care much trouble it was to round up all the people he needed. Just do it. And it was done.
They put me in a converted storeroom and began administering IV Lactated Ringer, a dextrose injection solution. I was to take this for the next two days. Four quarts dripping one quart at a time.
For the next twenty-four hours I could take water but no food. The doctor’s wife, who is a registered nurse, prepared all my meals when I was allowed food. Their attention and care was a blessing indeed but of the excellent medical help afforded by the SDA people all over the world.
After four days the doctor said I could be released but he wanted me to get to Hong Kong and into a major hospital as quickly as possible.
After leaving the clinic in Puerto Princessa and sailing across the South China Sea through the northeast monsoon to Hong Kong, I entered the Hong Kong hospital to find out why I was hemorrhaging.
Cancer diagnosis
The Canadian doctor in charge of my case in Hong Kong called in outside specialists. First, they did an x-ray barium test. Then I was taken to the operating room where a long tube was pushed down my throat so photographs could be taken inside my stomach. In addition to being able to photograph the inside of my stomach the doctor was able to get scrapings from the stomach wall.
I then submitted to a C.T. Scan. This is a large machine that x-rays each inch of your chest and abdomen. A radiologist then looks at the pictures to determine any abnormality. I was disappointed to learn from the doctor the results, a diagnosis of cancer of the pancreas.
The doctor told me if I did nothing I would not live six months. He recommended immediate surgery. He said even though if I survived the surgery my chances of beating this type of cancer were less than 10%. Later I read only 2% of people live five years after this surgery.
I told the doctor I wanted to go to Houston at once where I would be more comfortable. I caught the next Pan-Am flight to Texas. Upon arrival in Houston, I checked into a hospital the next day where surgery was scheduled in four days.
In Texas, I learned if only a portion of the pancreas is removed it is possible to live up to ten years so the next six months prognosis in Hong Kong seemed less grim.
After more tests, while waiting for the results, I again took this matter to God in prayer. The night before entering the Texas hospital, I had a one to one talk with God in prayer as I’ve done so often in my life.
I told God I did not understand the reason for this trouble. I certainly was not going to bargain, not say if he would help me I’d do something for Him. I thanked Him for all he had done for me and the prayers He had answered. I thanked Him for the good times I’d been planting seeds and sharing as He wanted me to do.
I told Him I did not understand why He granted my prayer for the yacht if He intended to do this to me so recently after I got the boat.
I reminded Him of what He did when I got the used Chevrolet for $100. I was so proud of that car and then when I was on my first trip a rod went through the block. “Is this what you are doing now?” I asked.
No answer. So then I accepted the fact of my serious situation, I thanked God for this cancer blessing since all things come from Him. I told Him if this was His way of getting me home with Him, it was O.K. with me, but I did think He could have arranged a faster and less melodramatic way.
God didn’t talk to me as He usually does, so I accepted what was to be and knew in the morning I would be in the hospital. Later I’ll give you the prayer I gave God in the hospital while waiting for the needle biopsy pancreas test results.
One to one prayer
After that one to one prayer, a warm feeling came over my body and a bright light seemed to come on in my mind. I experienced the most profound sense of well being I’d ever known. I knew that regardless of what happened after the Houston biopsy results were in, I’d either live longer or soon to be with God. Either seemed satisfactory. I went to sleep that night happier than I’d been in a long time.
“… showed no cancer cells in my body. The scheduled surgery was canceled. God gave me a second chance at life.”
As I dozed off I remembered the message James gave us in the 5th Chapter that ‘The prayer of faith shall save the sick.’ I had faith. It remained to be seen what miracles if any, faith could produce in my life.
Several days later the biopsy results and the detailed colon results showed no cancer cells in my body. The scheduled surgery was canceled. God gave me a second chance at life.
My relief was overwhelming. What a burden he lifted from me! I went to the hotel, packed and then back to my boat in Hong Kong.
In my Hong Kong hotel room, I dropped to my knees and thanked God for this blessing of life. For the first time in a week, He spoke to me after I prayed and waited for his reply. He said in effect, “Tom, isn’t it about time you shared with others the reason for your good fortune? Isn’t it about time you admitted the answers to your prayers are the reason for your good fortune?”
Tears came to my eyes as I felt ashamed for accepting so much without giving credit to God. Of course, I told God, I would do as He asked. I would tell people about my one to one relationship with Him.
But, “How am I to do this?” I asked. God told me to never mind. Just agree to do it and He would show me, step by step how it was to be done. When I asked what I was to write, He told me not to worry. He would supply all I needed to know to put the words on paper. “Just tell what has happened in your life the best you can.” He told me. “And I’ll tell you what to write that I want people to know”, He said.
When I asked how I would get this information to people, He told me not to worry. He would supply the ‘how’ at the right time. He also said He would cause the people who needed the information to get a copy of what I wrote. So the fact you have a copy of Asking And Getting What You Want … positive prayer secrets in your hands prove God knew what He was doing. He always knows.
Now for the conclusion of this section and Positive Health Prayer.
God did not plant your feet in the soil as He did the trees because He wanted you to move about so you can enjoy all the Earth offers.
In order to be mobile and enjoy all your days in this world God wants you to have perfect health.
He put a part of Himself into each of us so we can go quickly to him to get our prayers answered. Listen to the small voice that is within you to have instant prayer communication with God.
Christians in the early centuries after Christ’s sacrifice were enthusiastic because their prayers were answered abundantly. Some priests became jealous and wanted control over the people. As a result, we had the Dark Ages. Now, God sends again to all of us that prayer is answered fully. You can plant seeds and be rewarded beyond measure.
To have your prayers answered fully, you must regain the marvelous one to one relationship with God the early Christians experienced. The words now in your hands show you how to do this.
God wants you to enjoy perfect health. You can best do this when you are free from tensions. So, always go to God immediately with any illness that comes your way. Thank god for the illness because all illness comes from God since all things come from God. Turn the problem over to God. Use God’s power for relief.
When you have a strong one to one relationship with God, when you believe, when you prove your love for God by sharing and planting seeds, you have every right to come to God and ask for relief from any illness. God guarantees you anything. And anything certainly includes freedom from illness. Remember, God loves you.
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Positive Health Prayer
Father, I am coming to You on my knees and asking that You use Your strong power to grant me a health blessing.
My present condition is (describe the complaint)
I am not questioning Your wisdom or Your plan, Father, since I know all things come from You. I know You are loving, not hateful nor vindictive. The fact that I do not understand my affliction and why I am suffering is not the point.
The point is I love You. I am Your child who needs Your power to cure me of this ailment. You guarantee us anything if we come to You in prayer and if we believe. You know of my love for you. You know I believe in You with all my heart. So, Father, please cure me quickly.
I can do nothing by myself. The doctors and nurses do all they can. Your power is the only true power.
I need you, Father. I am hurting. Your love can heal me.
I am on my knees to You, Father. You created me. I am Your child. Please help me. Amen.
Section 2.
Section 3.
Section 4.
Not Easy To Beat Cancer Without Courage Strength Belief
Section 5.
Section 6.
Section7.
“Asking And Getting What You Want … positive prayer secrets” by Thomas L. Hall
Is a non-denominational publication for all faiths.
Published by: PPS Publishing Company
P.O. Box 8283
Woodlands, Texas 77387
Copyright © 1988 Thomas L. Hall. All rights reserved.
P.S.
I hope you enjoyed this post and benefited from it. What are your thoughts about this? Did it help you in some way? Did you get an idea? Perhaps share with others. Please leave a comment.
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